Where Utah football ranks in the preseason top 25 coaches poll
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The Utah Utes opened fall camp this week in Salt Lake City. This leads into Morgan Scalley's first season as head football coach.
The first college football rankings of the year were released Tuesday, putting Utah at No. 21 in the coaches poll to start the season. Scalley and his staff have to feel like the program is in a good place ahead of the Sept. 3 opener against Idaho. A warm-up for the Utes' Week 2 game against Arkansas.
Utah finished last season ranked No. 14 in the coaches poll following an 11-2 finish in 2025. They took care of business in the Las. Vegas Bowl against Nebraska, which happened to be Scalley's first win as head coach. The Utes also went 7-2 in the Big 12 with losses to BYU and Texas Tech, who played each other in last year's conference title game.
Being ranked in the coaches poll to start the season shows Scalley is respected on the same level as Kyle Whittingham. They also believe there won't be a let-down after the coaching change. The longtime assistant took on the coach-in-waiting title years ago, with the plan that Whittingham would step down eventually. Instead of riding down the retirement road in Salt Lake City, Whittingham felt he had more to prove. Michigan gave him an offer he couldn't turn down.
Utah was one of four Big 12 conference teams ranked in the coaches poll. Texas Tech is the top at No. 12, followed by BYU at No. 15 and Houston at No. 24 are the other three. What's interesting to note is the Big 12 has no top 10 teams heading into the season. Five other conference teams received votes. TCU (63), Arizona (50), Oklahoma State (22), Arizona State (8) and Kansas State (1).
Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Notre Dame are the top five teams in order. The Fighting Irish are the only independent school in the top 10. The defending National Champion, Indiana, is ranked No. 6, one spot ahead of last year's runner-up Miami at No. 7. Half of the top 10 schools are from the SEC.
Utah will be looking to repeat the success of last season. While the Utes lost the entire offensive line, they found replacements in the trenches. Not to mention, they've beefed up with depth across the board. Nevertheless, Utah might start turning some heads this season.
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